'I don't have to train, I get to ride my bike': Arnaud De Lie reborn
A week after holding off Mathieu van der Poel to take the Renewi Tour title, his biggest win to date, 23-year-old Arnaud De Lie has reflected on his tough start to 2025.
"In the winter, when training started, everything was going well. Then I got sick," De Lie told Het Laatste Nieuws in an interview published 30 August. "That wasn't so bad in itself, but for some reason, I was hit hard afterward ... I lost the desire to exert myself and my love for cycling. At the top level, that's fatal. All the pieces have to fall into place before you can perform."
De Lie took his first victory of the season at the beleaguered Étoile de Bessèges, but his spring was derailed by struggles intermittently attributed to overtraining and mental fatigue. He was back to strong form in time for the Tour de France, five times appearing in the top seven, and then it was time for the Renewi Tour.
"I feel like I'm making physical progress, but even more importantly: I look at the sport differently," De Lie said of what's changed. "I don't have to train, I get to ride my bike. During that difficult period, it was a battle every morning to get up and get on my bike to go training. But I had to find that little spark again ... And now I'm reaping the rewards. Every morning I know I'm going to have fun on the bike." [Het Laatste Nieuws]
After his recent success on home soil, De Lie's next race is Sunday's Bretagne Classic, then he heads to happy hunting ground for the Canadian one-days, returning to the GP Québec two years after winning on debut.
